Hull City's already slim hopes of offloading Jimmy Bullard this summer received a setback today when the midfielder signalled his intention to see out the remaining three years on his £45,000-a-week contract at the KC Stadium.

A source close to Bullard said: "Jimmy is not seeking a move at all, he is happy to stay at Hull." Selling the injury-prone former Wigan and Fulham playmaker was always going to be tricky as Hull bought him from Fulham for £5m 15 months ago despite Bullard failing a medical.

Paul Duffen, the former chairman at the KC Stadium, subsequently admitted that the club had been unable to take out insurance on their record signing as Bullard's knees were uninsurable.

Realistically, the only way anyone might be tempted to recruit him would be on a pay-as-you-play basis but the fragile kneed 31-year-old is not prepared to exchange a basic £45,000-a-week – and with assorted add-ons that remuneration rises to around £50,000 – for such insecurity.

Hull, who have commissioned an independent audit of their finances, are £35m in debt, in effect relegated from the Premier League and trying to stave off the threat of administration or the need to enter a Company Voluntary Arrangement. With the atmosphere between the club's owner Russell Bartlett and the chairman Adam Pearson extremely tense, it is not impossible Pearson could resign. For the moment, he is working to reduce the player wage bill from £40m a year to £15m while also helping restructure the debt by re-negotiating loans with various creditors.

It helps that, due to high earners including George Boateng being out of contract this summer and a series of loan deals involving players such as Jozy Altidore ending, natural wastage means the wage bill is expected to drop significantly by July. Although the club intends to make a announcement regarding their future direction at the end of this week the next two months will be critical in averting administration or a CVA and the attendant deduction of 10 points by the Football League.

Much depends on whether Hull can meet an outstanding £4m plus tax debt to HM Revenue and Customs. It would help if they could swiftly sell the midfielder Stephen Hunt. He is valued at around £5m but is recovering from a broken foot and will not be fit again until August, thereby missing pre-season training at a new club. This makes him less attractive to potential suitors and, apart form delaying any deal, may force his price down.

Even so Bartlett's biggest current worry will be the potential loss of an increasingly disillusioned Pearson. Acknowledged as one of the brightest financial brains in football Pearson was brought back to the club he rescued from extinction in 2001 and sold to Bartlett in 2007, last winter in the wake of Duffen's abrupt departure following an auditor's warning from Hull's accountants Deloitte.